Carole McDonald has joined the Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society as its education director, taking over from the outgoing director Maria Vlahos. McDonald will be conducting tours at the historic Sands-Willets House as well working to expand the society’s outreach to all schools and civic groups in the region.
McDonald said she is delighted to join the historical society and states: “I vividly remember standing in the hearth kitchen next to a woman dressed in colonial garb. I couldn’t have been more than eight. And now I am that woman, making new memories for all the children who join me in our historic house-museum. I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
McDonald is a product of Port Washington public schools and received her Bachelor’s Degree in speech, theater and communications from Marymount College of Fordham University. Before leaving New York in the early 1990s, McDonald appeared on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns.
Returning to her hometown is a “dream come true” for Carole. “Throughout my life I have been proud to always call Port Washington my home. I strongly credit the education that I received here as being the springboard for my successful career in media, as well as the charge I felt as a parent to make sure that my children were both challenged and strove to achieve success in their scholastic careers.”
In her youth, Carole was very active with the Port Washington Play Troupe and received the North Shore Community Arts Center Drama Award in 1985 upon her graduation from Paul D. Schreiber High School. “I also feel that my extensive background in performing will greatly enable me to engage my visitors by both entertaining them as well as informing them about the rich history of this area of Long Island,” McDonald said.
The Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society is dedicated to engaging people of all ages in programs that highlight the lifestyles of the people and families that lived and worked on the peninsula throughout the years. If interested in finding out about the tours that McDonald can offer to classrooms, schools or community group, contact her at carole@cowneck.org, or (516) 365-9074.
